Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy McNamara is very welcome back to the Dáil. I have not had an opportunity to speak to him either.

I agree with the point on the difficulty in bringing derelict homes up to the right standard for living in. We can make changes here, of course we can. We need to be careful that in making those changes we are then not criticised for lowering standards, but it makes absolutely no sense if the only choice - it is not really a choice - people feel they have is that they must leave a home vacant, derelict or going derelict because they cannot afford or are not allowed to renovate it in some way. I love to watch all those architecture programmes on TV, such as "Grand Designs". They do amazing things but it always costs a hell of a lot of money to do them. We want to be able to try to protect the fabric of our communities, villages and towns.

This is one way in which we can do it.

We have tried several different schemes but some have not been as successful. One example was the change to the need for planning permission if a shop owner wanted to convert above the shop. We got rid of that. If a property owner owns a protected building, that is not going to make much of a difference. There are other standards that might not be put in place. Work is being done in terms of town and village renewal on what might be achieved there.

Local authority funding of €500 million has been secured now for the three-month waiver and for the new restart fund. The three-month waiver is there for everyone, even if they open up early. It is there until the end of June. If a business owner was to be able to open in two weeks' time, he or she would still have that waiver until the end of June. If he or she cannot open until August, he or she will get an extra waiver. Some €500 million is going to be added because additional money will be required for people in the hospitality sector who will be unable to open before August. That is the position at the moment according to the plan, but hopefully that can be brought forward. With the restart refund, a business owner can apply for up to €10,000 in a rebate or waiver of rates. Some 80% of businesses pay less than €10,000 per year in rates. Basically 80% of businesses can have their rates waived for a further 12 months if that is what they want. Alternatively, if they want, they can get the money upfront to re-purpose their businesses or to do some of the social distancing things they might need to do. It can be used to reinvent their businesses if that is necessary. They will be able to get that cash based on the money they paid in rates in 2019. That money is available and it will be added to as necessary.

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